ATLANTA -- In the top of the eighth inning, a brief but audible mock applause ripped through Turner Field as the hero of the afternoon was in the midst of making a Little League error.

With one out, Jimmy Rollins had just lifted a lazy fly ball to left field. Joe Blanton was preparing to round second base when the Braves acted quick and doubled him off first to end the inning.

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"Speed-up rules," Blanton joked afterward.

You couldn't blame Blanton for wanting to get back on the mound as quickly as he could Thursday. Less than 24 hours removed from a deflating loss that saw Roy Halladay pitch his worst game with the Phillies, Blanton may have delivered his best.

Blanton held Atlanta to three singles in a brilliant, 4-0 shutout win over the Braves.

Blanton needed only 88 pitches to get through a two-hour, two-minute game that saw him face just 29 batters -- two more than the minimum.

"There are some games when you know in the (pregame) bullpen and it doesn't happen, then there's some games when it does," Blanton said afterward. "Then there are some games when you know in the first inning, 'I'm going to be pretty good today.' And then there's some games when you don't really think about it."

So which was Thursday?

"Today, I didn't even think about it," Blanton said. "I just tried to keep focusing on making good pitches one after the other."

His plan worked perfectly, delivering the Phillies a series win over the division-rival Braves. The brisk game, which ended before most schools in Atlanta and Philadelphia let out, was a godsend to a Phils team that endured an excruciating 15-13, 11-inning loss a night earlier.

"Perfect timing," said catcher Brian Schneider, who helped guide Blanton to his third career shutout and first since June 2, 2007.

The unpredictable Phillies offense helped Blanton from the get-go. He pitched with a lead in each of his nine innings Thursday.

After Jimmy Rollins led off the game with a single and Juan Pierre followed with a bunt base hit, Hunter Pence hit a sacrifice fly to give the Phils a 1-0 lead.

The game remained that way until the seventh inning, when Laynce Nix, making his sixth straight start, crushed a two-out solo home run over the fence in dead center.

Although Nix started at first base Thursday, he may have a leg up on a left-field job that has already been handed off from John Mayberry Jr. to Juan Pierre. Nix, who went 2-for-3, is hitting .444 with five extra-base hits in his last five games and is batting .353 (12-for-34) with two home runs, five doubles and nine RBIs in 12 starts this season.

"It's kind of hard for me to take him out, isn't it?" manager Charlie Manuel said. "When you hit a ball hard and you hit homers, doubles and you hit over .300 ... A .300 hitter is hard to come by nowadays."

Nix leads the team in hitting (.342) and in OPS (1.077).

"That's usually the way it goes -- if you're swinging a good bat, you get at-bats," Nix said of his increased playing time. "I was really prepared for anything (coming into the season). I was on my toes for pinch-hit duty and part-time playing, but also making sure I was ready to play every day and produce, too."

If Nix's home run provided Blanton with insurance, Shane Victorino's ninth-inning, two-run shot off of long-time starter-turned reliever Livan Hernandez was the knockout blow to the Braves. The Phils left Atlanta and headed to Washington having won nine out of their last 10 games against the Braves.

"These are teams that are going to be there at the end, teams that have gotten better," Victorino said of the competition with the division. "So winning series like this is definitely important, especially in situations like now when we don't have our full team out there."

Coming into the season, the five-time reigning NL East champion Phillies were thought to be the favorite in the division because of their veteran, talented starting pitching. But Cliff Lee is on the disabled list and will miss the Nationals series and Roy Halladay, who also isn't scheduled to pitch in Washington, blew a six-run lead Wednesday night.

Joe Blanton, however, showed the depth of that starting rotation when he blitzed through the Braves in the shortest game of the young season.

"What Joe did today... it goes to tell you what your fifth starter means to you, and what it takes to make a team," Manuel said. "When we get beat in a game like last night and he comes back and pitches like that, that just goes to show you what we can do when we want to, when we have fun playing and relax and concentrate on out-playing somebody."

The Phillies (13-13) have won six of their last nine games and each of the last two times Blanton has taken the mound. Blanton was both aggressive and efficient Thursday.

He threw first-pitch strikes to 21 of the 29 batters he faced and retired a remarkable 23 out of 24 batters from the end of the first inning to the beginning of the ninth.

Blanton needed only 28 pitches to get through his final four innings and only threw more than eight pitches in an inning once after the third.

"Joe did great," Schneider said. "He really mixed up all his pitches and threw all his pitches, got ahead of a lot of hitters. It was one of those games where a lot of guys were swinging early. I'm just happy for Joe and happy for the team because (Wednesday) night was a tough game for us."

"Just the fact that a lot of guys pitched (Wednesday) night and the pen had to go deep, I take that as the biggest thing," Blanton said, "some guys got some rest today."

Blanton did not.

Although he cruised through his start, he took part in his postgame interview while riding a stationary bike in the visiting clubhouse. Blanton rode for at least a half hour.